Our First Train Ride

Yesterday was an adventure! Our friends from church, Jane & Marlin, are in Germany right now visiting their daughter & grandson. They're about 2.5 hours from us, and we had planned to visit with them this weekend. On Monday morning, I got a phone call from Jane. They were going to Cologne on Tuesday, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them. Now, I am absolutely NOT a spur-of-the-moment type of gal. But, I'm trying to be better, and so much of the reason we came here was to travel. So, I said yes. They were taking the train, so I looked at taking the train vs. driving. We were to meet them there at about 11:30. I looked and decided to take the train. It was about the same amount of time to get there, but with the train, I wouldn't have the stress of driving. Unfortunately, I would have the stress of taking the train in a foreign country, but at least that wouldn't last the whole time. There was a direct train, so we'd only have to figure it out once each way. We had taken the train in England which was on one hand more stressful because we had a transfer, but on the otherhand less stressful, because I could talk to the other people on the train and ask them questions.

I bought the ticket online, and it said it was a "standard fare," and that it was good on any train. I was confused, though, because there were different prices for different times. It didn't seem to make sense that you could pay for the 72 EUR ticket and be able to take the 100 EUR train. I knew what time I wanted to get there, but I wasn't sure what time we wanted to come back. There were straight through trains from Cologne to Mainz every hour in the evening. Most were 72 EUR, but one was 76. So, I paid for the 76 EUR ticket, because I figured then I should be able to take a 72 EUR, because why would they complain if somebody took a cheaper train. Then when I printed the ticket, it was in German, so I couldn't read it. So, I just had to hope.

Tuesday morning, we got up in plenty of time, and all was going well, but we somehow managed to get out late, anyway. Then, I went how the GPS told me to go to get to the train station, and it took me very beautifully to the front door of the train station. Unfortunately, the only parking there is a kiss & ride lot, which I didn't realize until after we got out of the car and realized that the thing I thought was a ticket booth was not. So, we hopped back into the car and had to find a parking lot. I couldn't get the GPS back on in time, but luckily I made the right turns & found a structure. Too bad it was a bit of a trek to the station! Again luckily, our train was running late, as well. Otherwise, we would have had to wait an hour for the next one.

When the train pulled into the station, we moved with the crush onto the train, and found the first set of seats that was open. We took our coats off and settled in. Then, I looked around and noticed we had a lot of leg room. It looked like the same amount that we had on the train in England, but one of the things it had said on the website about first class was that there was more legroom. So, I was nervous that maybe we had accidentally sat in first class. But, I didn't know how to check, nor did I know where to go to get to second class. So, I decided to just wait and see. In my looking, I also noticed that there were little digital displays above the seats, and some had city names on them. Reserved seats. Crap. I looked at ours, and sure enough, they were reserved. One was from Cologne on, though, and one was for Dortmund, or something like that. There was an itinerary in the seat back in front of us, so I looked up Dortmund. It was after Cologne, so we were good. Woo! Now I just had to worry about the ticket man. He came by a little while into the trip and looked at my ticket. He scanned it. He looked at my ID. He looked at the ticket again. He kept looking. I was scared. Finally, he handed it back to me. Phew! Then, I settled in to enjoy the trip.

From Mainz to Bonn (especially Mainz to Koblenz) was absolutely beautiful. We were right next to the Rhine for most of the trip, and there were millions of castles and beautiful little towns along the way. We were on the wrong side of the train to get any good pictures, but we could see out of the other windows. The rest of the trip wasn't all that gorgeous, because we turned inland a bit, and the landscape was no longer conducive to the large hilltop fortresses we had seen earlier, but it was still pretty.

So, I just looked it up, and here's what I found on a website about castles on the Rhein -

Since Roman times the Rhein valley has been a line of communication of vital strategic importance. In the Middle Ages the German emperors used it for their frequent progresses into Italy, and rich merchants sent their goods to and fro along it. Obviously anyone owning a castle overlooking the valley was in a powerful position, since he was able to survey and regulate the flow of traffic across his particular territory and levy tolls on merchants. This accounts for the large number of castles along the Rhein from Mainz to Bonn, particularly in the narrow gorge connecting Bingen and Koblenz. Along this stretch of river, which has a length of only thirty-five miles, there are more castles than in any other river valley in the world.

So now I'm feeling pretty lucky for that to have been my first train experience in Germany. :) Anyway, the rest of it went smoothly, we got to Cologne, and had a lovely time (That will be another post, since this one is about the train). Jane & Marlin's daughter speaks fluent German and so looked at my ticket & talked to a customer service guy for me. She assured me that my ticket would indeed get us home on whichever train we chose. And so it did. On the way back, we were even confident enough to take a train with a transfer. :)